JUDAS ISCARIOT, the
disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican
scholars.

The proposed “rehabilitation” of the man who
was paid 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden
of Gethsemane, comes on the ground that he was not deliberately evil, but was
just “fulfilling his part in God’s plan”.

Christians have traditionally blamed Judas for
aiding and abetting the Crucifixion, and his name is synonymous with treachery.
According to St Luke, Judas was “possessed by Satan”.

Now, a campaign led by Monsignor Walter
Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science, is aimed
at persuading believers to look kindly at a man reviled for 2,000 years.

Mgr Brandmuller told fellow scholars it was time
for a “re-reading” of the Judas story. He is supported by Vittorio Messori,
a prominent Catholic writer close to both Pope Benedict XVI and the late John
Paul II.

Signor Messori said that the rehabilitation of
Judas would “resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus toward
one of his closest collaborators”.

He told La Stampa that there was a
Christian tradition that held that Judas was forgiven by Jesus and ordered to
purify himself with “spiritual exercises” in the desert.

In scholarly circles, it has long been
unfashionable to demonise Judas and Catholics in Britain are likely to welcome
Judas’s rehabilitation.

Father Allen Morris, Christian Life and Worship
secretary for the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, said: “If Christ died
for all — is it possible that Judas too was redeemed through the Master he
betrayed?” The “rehabilitation” of Judas could help the Pope’s drive to
improve Christian-Jewish relations, which he has made a priority of his
pontificate.

Some Bible experts say Judas was “a victim of
a theological libel which helped to create anti Semitism” by forming an image
of him as a “sinister villain” prepared to betray for money.

In many medieval plays and paintings Judas is
portrayed with a hooked nose and exaggerated Semitic features. In Dante’s Inferno,
Judas is relegated to the lowest pits of Hell, where he is devoured by a
three-headed demon.

The move to clear Judas’s name coincides with
plans to publish the alleged Gospel of Judas for the first time in English,
German and French. Though not written by Judas, it is said to reflect the belief
among early Christians — now gaining ground in the Vatican — that in
betraying Christ Judas was fulfilling a divine mission, which led to the arrest
and Crucifixion of Jesus and hence to man’s salvation.

Mgr Brandmuller said that he expected “no new
historical evidence” from the supposed gospel, which had been excluded from
the canon of accepted Scripture.

But it could “serve to reconstruct the events
and context of Christ’s teachings as they were seen by the early
Christians”. This included that Jesus had always preached “forgiveness for
one’s enemies”.

Some Vatican scholars have expressed concern
over the reconsideration of Judas. Monsignor Giovanni D’Ercole, a Vatican
theologian, said it was “dangerous to re-evaulate Judas and muddy the Gospel
accounts by reference to apocryphal writings. This can only create confusion in
believers.” The Gospels tell how Judas later returned the 30 pieces of silver
— his “blood money” — and h anged himself, or according to the Acts of
the Apostles, “fell headlong and burst open so that all his entrails burst
out”.

Some
accounts suggest he acted out of disappointment that Jesus was not a
revolutionary who intended to overthrow Roman occupation and establish
“God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

In the Gospel accounts, Jesus reveals to the
disciples at the Last Supper that one of them will betray him, but does not say
which. He adds “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would
have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

But he also — according to St Matthew —
acknowledged that Judas had a divine function to fulfil, saying to him during
the arrest, “Friend, do what you are here to do” and adding that “the
prophecies of the Scriptures must be fulfilled”.

The “Gospel of Judas”, a 62-page worn and
tattered papyrus, was found in Egypt half a century ago and later sold by
antiquities dealers to the Maecenas Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.

MOCK OF AGES

In Dante’s
Inferno, Judas is relegated to the lowest pits of Hell, where he is
eaten, head first, by a three-headed demon with flapping bat-like wings

In Cecil B.
DeMille’s 1927 silent film The King of Kings, Judas’s
attraction for Mary Magdalene and the resulting jealousy contributes to his
betrayal of Jesus

Tim Rice and
Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar depicts
Judas as a disillusioned, angry character. In the 1973 film version he is
presented as more of a victim than villain

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ
shows Judas hounded by demon-like street children who send him to his death
amid a sea of insects and maggots